One Week of Shopping Malls

Its only 18 days into the new year, and already I’m lethargic.

I had some leave to clear last year, i was off for 10 days from Christmas eve right until New Year’s Day. The two weekends were taken up by Christmas and New Year’s respectively. But what did i go during the entire week off? I went shopping!

Day 1 of Shopping: 1 Utama

Well, you know, 1 Utama obviously the first stop. We missed most of the performances and carols, but the decor was great. Not as great as last year’s drummer boy theme tho.

My kid obviously had a good time, she hardly gets a chance to play here since its always under the hot sun.

Day 2 of Shopping: Mid Valley Megamall and Gardens

Mid Valley is as popular as ever. Try getting a parking spot after 11am and you’ll see what i mean. This time round the decor theme was castle (at the centre court) and village (north court). Overall it was a little disappointing, and the village looked really, um, it looked like they ran out of budget on this one.

Gardens was much better, as it always is every year. Not much of a theme going on here, but the clientele, who needs a theme.

At Mid Valley we had lunch at our new favourite fast food outlet, Popeye’s.

Day 3 of Shopping: Sunway Pyramid

After 1 Utama and Mid Valley, deciding on another mall was a little tricky. By right it should be Sunway Pyramid, but like most people i know, we didn’t really like the place. But we went anyway, since it was near and we wanted to buy a luggage bag.

I dunno, the decor was centred on this logo that looked strangely like Moulin Rouge and the The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Other than that nothing of note really, the old wing of Pyramid always struck me of being dark and gloomy.

I guess this is what they do to shoplifters here.

Since our last visit there’s this theme park thing going on at the lower ground, a little bit like a cheaper version of the one in Berjaya Times Square. RM3 to ride this funny looking ferris wheel. Strangely, they call it a ‘merry go round’. Wonder how long until the novelty of this will wear off.

I always maintained that there is never anything good to eat here other than the usual chain restaurants. But we ended up in the new branch of Fullhouse. Good decor, (poor service) and good food, and not too expensive.

Day 4 of Shopping: Pavilion KL

By day 4 my kids were groaning everytime we mentioned we were going ‘shopping’. What la, no stamina one kids nowadays.

Pavilion, of course, is a beautiful place, expensive parking notwithstanding (cost us RM11 btw).

We made it a point to go in the afternoon, so that we could catch the awesome Christmas lights. Apparently, the budget for the decor was RM1million, or so we were told.

Dinner was a little tricky. We were looking for this Korean BBQ place we heard about, couldn’t find it. We then tried Michaelangelo’s, since they had this promo for Citibank cardholders. But strangely, they didn’t allow us to sit in the non-smoking section even tho it was empty and it was only 5.30pm. Since the smoking section (partially outdoors) was hot and smoky, we decided to go elsewhere.

We ended in Chocolate. Great food, HORRIBLE service (they have YET to answer my complaint e-mail).

Day 5 of Shopping: The Curve, e-Curve, Ikano & Ikea

By day 5 we had to drag our kids into car.

Ikano had this Underwater Christmas theme (really? Who thought of this? The marketing executive with the new fish tank?) Other than a few fish tanks in the centre court, nothing else to see. Unless you count the soap bubbles that appear every hour or so. And they also keep repeating this annoying Christmas carol over the sound system. Reeeeally annoying.

The Curve – heck by 30th December they had already taken down all the Christmas decor. WHY?!!

So the only Christmas pic was at Marche. No idea why the cow is green.

e-Curve (formerly known as Cineleisure), donno what to say. all they had was two christmas trees. Oh, and these two dodgy looking avatar guys. I wonder how many kids took a peek under the loincloth.

Anyway five days of shopping was enough. We found our luggage bag in Ikano. On New Year’s Day, we had a pool party to celebrate Zoe’s birthday.

Good end to 2009.